The Gynaecologist
The gentleman landed his newly purchased luxury car at the parking lot of the exquisitely built clinic located at the Southern corner of the city. Now he landed with his expectant wife and headed towards the reception, just a few steps away, where he was told to wait while her wife was led to the doctor's room.
The doctor, Lenin Mohapatra, after having the necessary checking inside the closed door, sent the mother to the operation theatre where he was to join presently with his assistants. The gentleman and his wife were already informed of the Caesarian section the latter had to undergo, and accordingly they had come prepared.
The Caesarian method was successfully completed after an hour, at 1 pm, and a girl child with sound health was born, or rather made to born causing cheer to the man, more so because the condition of the mother was also good.
The case was, nevertheless, a matter of little difficulty for Dr Mohapatra, one of the reputed doctor gynaecologists of the city, and of the State as well. In fact, it was his third case of the day, which implied that he earned rupees sixty thousand in the morning session due to such cases only. The earning was rather lucrative to draw envy of any businessman. No doubt, Dr Mohapatra had created enormous wealth within a span of just ten years, mostly due to his business acumen which he employed successfully in his profession save his skill in the field.
Now a little over mid-forty, the doctor appeared more like a suburban hooligan with his robust health coupled with a dark complexion than like a white collar gentleman doctors often look. True, he was more particular to his earnings now than before, but it was not so initially when he had started his independent business.
More than two decades ago when he was a degree student of medicine he had cherished a dream-to serve the poor people of the city with a low fee. He himself came from a lower middle class family and had undergone the vicissitudes of life, and obviously understood the plights of these people better.
Those days he was also influenced by leftist ideology coming closer to the youths of an organization believing in Marxist-Leninist philosophy. But it was dubious if he followed the ideology more than the sentiment expressed by its preachers. For, he liked the name Lenin so much so that he wanted to replace his actual name, Narayan by it, which he did by an affidavit. However, unlike Lenin, he was not audacious enough to bring social change in any way though was quite so in making a mark as he could successfully woo his classmate at the medical college, Lily Mohanty, then a beautiful girl of classical frame.
Perhaps it was his love for Lily that made him to specialize in gynaecology rather than medicine which he had planned initially.
Often Lily would say tainting Narayan, "How could you know exactly what a woman feels in specific situations since you belong to the opposite sex?"
"Now that you are with me, it is hardly a problem," he would reply nonchalantly.
Soon after his specialization Narayan alias Lenin was posted in a city hospital while Lily had started her private practice in the same city. He was enjoying his work fully at this public health facility being complacent that he was serving people especially from the lower stratum of the society.
After a year there was a vacancy at the medical college for the lecturer's post to which he did apply and got selected. Now he got the opportunity to further his research activity while he served patients at his quarters in the evening at a nominal charge and that too only for an hour. For, he was not at all interested to make a business out of his profession, but to devote an extra hour to the service of the common men.
Soon his research bore fruit. He successfully carried out the realization of a test tube baby with a couple having some snag for the natural process. It was for the first time that a doctor in the State had achieved this feat. It brought him laurels and his reputation reached beyond the city. It was at this time that he got married to Lily.
Meanwhile the State Government passed legislation that prohibited doctors in public hospitals to continue private practice. Now Lenin had to take a trade off. Either he should discontinue his treatment of patients at home or discontinue his job. He was in dilemma when Lily suggested for the latter.
Initially he was reluctant to agree with Lily, but soon an idea came to his mind. He can serve the common people charging lower fee and those coming from the upper class charging higher. Moreover, taking vengeance with the bourgeoisie was burning in his Marxian heart and he must take the opportunity in this way, and now with his enhanced reputation he can serve it better. So he resigned the government job and started his clinic at a rented building.
Lily also supported Lenin at the clinic for an hour or two while she continued to consult patients at her own facility. The wife and husband did not merge their business as in that way the latter could not expropriate his reputation and acumen to the fullest extent. This idea was also supplied to Lenin by Lily who had some business guts in her.
As expected, Lenin's business picked up soon. He employed an assistant who was very faithful to him. The job of this young man consisted of studying the economic status of the clients by observation and informal interview at the waiting room and supplying information to him. Now it was up to Lenin to discriminate between them and charge fees accordingly. Soon his revenue began to swell and so too his bank balance. In order to evade income tax he put his money in tax-saving mutual funds, and thereby let his capital grow further.
After a couple of years he purchased six acres of land at a place on Southern part of the city where wealthy people lived and constructed the present exquisite building- his modern sophisticated clinic. But soon he found that it was difficult to treat all his clients as their numbers increased by leaps and bounds and he could hardly find time. So he charged two upper price levels which the poor people could not afford, and again, he revised his fees from time to time. Obviously, his clients now consisted of the rich and the super-rich. By now Dr Lenin Mohapatra, as people used to call him with respect, had fallen in love with his cash balance more than those poor and lower middle class people he used to serve. His Marxian sentiment, if not ideology, had already withered away with the flood of money flooding his revenue.
As if not satisfied by his current trend of income, he began to apply a concept nascent among some gynecologist private near mes of the city. He treated the pregnant mothers and stressed on the Caesarian section when the expected time of delivery arrived. Each of these operations demanded rupees twenty-thousand from the client and there was a good margin of profit in it. On the average, he could earn a gross income of rupees one hundred thousand every day.
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